"A big concern." His motivation every year? "The feeling of winning an All Ireland."

His understanding with Noel Hickey? "It's gone well enough for us." (Understatement of the year. ) Here's someone who's unlikely to be mistaken for Richie Bennis any day soon.

His diplomacy is, if mildly irritating for the media, understandable. After seven All Ireland final appearances, Kavanagh, a ballplaying defender who's more a ballplayer than a defender, has little left either to see or to say. Narratives of consistent success are usually low on sidebars.

The Freshford man's biography in the Kilkenny pen pictures charts the manifold peaks and occasional troughs of the county's fortunes over the past decade better than any graph could. Four All Ireland medals, three All Ireland runners-up medals, four National League medals, nine Leinster medals, two All Stars and two Walsh Cup medals, the 2006 one as captain. Kavanagh was right-half back when the county began contesting All Ireland finals again nine years ago. He's right-corner back today as they contest their seventh final in the meantime.

Chronologically he is 28 years of age. Experience-wise he is Methuselah.

Not that all the experiences were . . . or could have been . . .

good ones. Although he pleads amnesia in regard to those earlier All Ireland final appearances, it can fairly be observed that his big-day debut against Offaly in 1998 largely bypassed him. Worse followed 12 months later as Kavanagh was one of the Kilkenny players most visibly submerged by Cork's late tidal wave. But consolation of a sort followed the very next Sunday in the shape of an All Ireland under-21 medal, and by mid-September 2003 he was the possessor of three senior medals.

At that year's All Stars, Kavanagh, who'd just received his second successive award, and his brother in arms Noel Hickey jumped around the place in high good humour, two young princes of the hurling world. "You know the name of that dance?" one onlooker asked dryly. "It's called, 'There'll Never Be a Rainy Day'."

Out of nowhere the clouds materialised. Kilkenny were upended by Wexford in the Leinster semi-final the next summer. Kavanagh, who'd struggled to cope with the pace of Rory Jacob, was one of the men who carried the can, losing his place and only returning for the All Ireland quarter-final replay with Clare. "Michael had lost his form a little and maybe he'd lost his appetite a small bit too, " recalls Johnny Walsh, one of the Kilkenny selectors.

"He'd been there so long, relatively speaking, and when you're a lovely stickman playing corner-back like him it can be difficult against a very fast corner-forward."

Ask Kavanagh whether he felt he was reaching the end of the road at that stage and he shakes his head. "To be honest, I didn't. It's how you cope with it mentally. Getting yourself right, getting yourself back in there." He did just that. For all the mileage on his clock, Kilkenny have yet to find a better man to wear the number two shirt . . . and that with, as Kavanagh says, the panel being "as strong for the last couple of years as it's ever been since I was involved".

His motivational compass points remain fixed. Pursuing excellence, maintaining excellence, winning trophies. The pleasure he derives from success has never waned. "The feeling of winning an All Ireland is what it's all about.

What it means to Kilkenny people, it's this. The buzz around the place for the weeks beforehand. The feelgood factor for the weeks afterwards when you win.

Each year you set yourself goals. This year's goal was to try and put back-to-back All Irelands together."

That Limerick's diet of bread and water on their journey to the final may prove of benefit to them today is a proposition Kavanagh doesn't argue with.

"That's a big concern alright. Limerick are very seasoned. Battle-hardened.

They've been brought to the wire a lot of times. They weren't far off Waterford in the Munster final. The public were talking about a Kilkenny-Waterford final, but I always felt that Limerick would have a big say."

Coming from the side of the draw they came from, he adds, Kilkenny could only beat what was put in front of them. "As players you just get on with it. The draw is made and it's out of your control. We focus on what lies ahead. It's up to the committees, it's not our problem. All we can do is just get on with the job. And Brian keeps things fresh. Every year he's on the lookout for new talent. In the backroom team as well. That brings freshness. You'd be hoping we'd have enough in the tank to get us over the line."

The longest-serving player on the Kilkenny team knows better than most what it takes to get over that line.